Go for Broke! (1951)

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

GO FOR BROKE! is a standard WW2 B-movie with an interesting basis: it tells of a platoon of Japanese-American troops fighting on the side of America against Nazi Germany during the war. Inevitably this is based on a true story and covers an aspect of the conflict that you don't really hear much about these days.Van Johnson plays the platoon's lieutenant, initially sceptical and rather racist when he hears about his new unit, but gradually developing a grudging form of respect for his men. The Asian actors are all fine, sympathetic, and convincing in their parts. The battle scenes are quite low rent and not always convincing, but they're delivered with enough gusto to make them entertaining.

With tomorrow being Memorial Day, I decided to finally watch this movie about the 442nd regiment consisting of Japanese-American soldiers who volunteered in order to escape the internment camps their families were sent to after Pearl Harbor. Van Johnson is their superior officer who initially isn't crazy about leading them since he's from Texas and wants to go with the regiment consisting of men from his background, not to mention skin color. I'll stop there and just say that while there were some exciting battle scenes and some gently humorous ones as well, I didn't think the script spent enough time with Johnson and his Asian-American men in showing how he gradually came to admire and like them. At least not in the natural way I expected as part of me seemed to think the transition seemed abrupt when he met with one of his Texas-bred colleagues who expressed his prejudices more blatantly causing him to punch him. Maybe I was thinking too much of that scene as I did find touching many of those men's situations especially the one with the pig he kept for a pet. And there is a rousing sense of pride in seeing everyone, regardless of skin color or culture, banding together to fight for the common good. So on that note, Go for Broke! gets a recommendation from me.

Japanese-Americans serving in the U.S. army during World War 11 is the central theme of this film. How ironic that this occurred while we were placing other Japanese-Americans in internment camps during this period.Van Johnson harbors prejudice as he chosen to shape these recruits up. While he runs into difficulty with top brass, he does his job well.He comes to understand and appreciate his men. When he meets up with his old Texas regiment, he fights someone for passing an anti-Japanese remark.The Japanese players do a good job of showing that their true spirits were with the U.S.A totally satisfying film depicting the human spirit.

This movie is significant because of its subject matter: only five short years after World War Two ended, "Japs" have become full-fledged Americans fighting for honor and country. Of course, the movie was released at a time when the US was caught in another Asian war (Korea) and we needed to know the "good" Asians from the "bad" ones.The battle scenes are plausible, if not outstanding, but the greater story arcs are the transformation of Lt. Grayson into a true-blue fan of an ethnic minority he once despised; and the struggle of the Nisei to prove themselves even though they were American all along. Deals with ethnic issues much better than most war movies. Also peppered with humor.